Method of applying and anchoring a concrete sheathing to a rammed earthwall



Feb. 7, 195 J. R. BARTON METHOD oF APPLYING AND ANcHoRING A CONCRETESHEATHING To A RAD/MED EARTHWALL 2 Sheets-Sheet l @RWA/r l NYENTOR JAMES R. BARTON Filed March 24, 1947 ATTORNEY Feb, 7, 1950 J. R. BARTON2,496,616

METHOD 0E APPLYING AND ANCHORING A CONCRETE SHEATEING To A RAlvuvlEDEARTHWALL Filed Maron 24, 1947 2 sheets-sheet 2 um I 1 NVENTOR JAMES R.BARTON ATTORN EY Patented Feb. 7, 1950 CONCRETE SHEATHING TO AEARTHWA'LL BAMMED llames Rl Barton Hartland, .Qrea .l ApplicationMarch-124, 194:7, Serial1No5736g736 (Cpl. 18T-.59.)

Thislllvention relates v,to a methodiof applying a Wellanchorecl thin,Weather-resistant' cement-itious coating to Walls oframmed earth.

It is being recognized Ythat the Wealth of yti-n'l.- bertbat covered theUnited States-in pioneer days has been used or Wasted to the point thatinterior nish is about the extent of demand'that it can be expected tosustain, even with far more careful use than has been heretoforeapplied.

Rammed earth Walls will last for centuries, have high insulation values,are vermin proof and have good strength of structure, but have oneAchilles heel. Where storms are more or less horizontal, an outercementitious ccat is absolutely essential. For further pertinent4informa-V tion, reference'is given to RammedrEarth Wall, revisedbulletin South Dakota State `C-ollege No. 277; Bulletin 335 South DakotaAg. 'Experiment Station; Bulletin No. 3, Engrg. vEmmen-in ent Sta,Clemenson Ag. College, SouthCarolina. Nati o nal Bureau cf StandardsReport, `BMS `'7, 8 yis `pertinent.

Painting, Whitewashing, cement Washes, plas.- ter coats and many otherexpedients vljiavejbeen tried, but the rammed earth does not provide lasatisfactory bonding surface and much Qf-jit provides almost none, Atbest, the natural, earth materials suitable to make rammedcearthwallsomitting the exterior coating adaptabiltmi ar Wider and morecomprehensive than the mate@ rials that can accept'and retainfanexterior coat with even a fair life expectancy.

It is an object of this inventiontp add-to the rammed earth wall art amethod ci concurrently applying relatively thin, WeatherproofVWallccat.- ings to rammed earth Walls When built, at :a c osgt ofmaterials and applicationv thatv will compare favorably -With the costof subsequently applied coats and have a like expectancy which, barringaccidents or earth upheavals, is :las great ast-he Wall.

Drawings accompany and form a part of this specication illustratingsteps of procedure and tools necessary to carry out the method; but thedisclosure as explained hereinafter is to be regarded as illustrativeand the scope of the invention is to be ascertained from the claims.

Drawings accompany and 'form apart of this specification, in Which- Fig.l is a vertical section of anrammedgearth wall withan anchored cementconcretesheath cnits weather surface, the section beingv talgen shortlyafter the construction has been started;

Fig. .2 represents a horizontal section onzfl Eig. 1: `and slaportion ofa completeraminegl earth wall in, perspective, from ,which a-Centersection .has been removed. :to Show how it leaks after buildlna.I2eser-ile.lnek the `str1..rature and `heW it isbuilt. more in detail.

vlifuxneral -I indicates-.1a foundation wall, which may be off CementGenerelle, or, .under `favorable ground Aconditions ,Wlthgeocl drainage.may .be .itself` of rammed .earth made inA the 4Way laboutto .bedescribed for makingv the above `vground Wall.

Numera1 2 .represente the-rammed. earth, which will be acOlIlDQSitiQIlfv of sand and cla-y, either :natura-l or compounded: fromassembled matetf als, usually the. former-which, `,bye.mp1oyment 0f theinventioni greatly eases :the number of dilfelent earth: k@01111210.51ons thai'fare .available Numeral.,.3-:representsaneout-side form, shownas 4to its contact surface with the `Wall' .only ,and both it andthe-lnsideform .4, must be 0f Substantial ldesign to stand ramming ofthe earth between them; :whieh issehematleally shown bythetimberworlf:3;andf4. Numeral 5 represents ,the outside :sheath o rWeather surface of cement concrete, .which latter term is intended to beunderstood broadly as vincluding other suitable bonding; material; than`Poltlarnl cement. though at presentthatsubstance is deemed-to be thebest from every viewpoint.

Numeral 6 represents the anchors, preferably of metal.; and the anchorsmaybe made of long wirenails with a shQrtfbit ofthe point Ybent overa-sV shown at Bp in Fig-- igor, preferably, as may follow the .generaladoption. of the invention in rammedearth welleenstrutien, a doubleheaded .wir 'srrlilart0 -saya30-.dswire nail with@ head .on both ends-lWe Iwill assume that the inert-ien 0f Wall 2, shown irl-verticalSeetinfnFlg.- .1, .Containsthlee eursesfeaeh, say-'lneheshlelllil/Ehenthe-171ml: caerse .was lin fpreparatien :fer @tartine the Step was'tenace fthefinside and .Outside ferme on the foundation l, in verticalspaced-relaticne Ship, the seeeepfbeine `that .0fffthe-exp.eeted-1nislied` wall ftbelsnee.

Thenl a `bottom row ef .anchors Suele esthe zlpwermest. :eee in ,Illawaarlad alsmethe.

.tepsurface ef thefellrldetien .L .Next fand'here .isztliebe mn' .enenfthemetaleep: @rater eme-,1. .1d edeewse en liep ofi theamh0rs.iut.aat `is;.-. 1h. zw.r;1 resting. Qn a similar row-Qi enchere@thefueeermest aile-her. ,numeral inf'if To .ixxiprorefseaeinathedistanee eecee., levee separate eleme ubihfrmay loe-'ef any desiredAs a result of very wide experience in rammed earth walls, it is usualto ram an initial course of shoveled in earth from say twelve inchesloose height down to six inches compacted height. It

is not the purpose of this disclosure to instruct on the mixture andtempering of the earth lmate-A rial as there is a wealth of informationon that easily but is not resilient like wood and nails lack holdingpower. Stucco has been since abandoned according to later literature.The process steps of the invention are of less cost as the expandedmetal is omitted and the labor necessary to build the wall is less.

Having fully disclosed my new method of construction of rammed earthwalls which results in a wall that is of itself new, having doubleheaded anchors holding the concrete and earth together, what I claim asnew and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is:

1. The method of applying an anchored concrete sheathing to a rammedearth wall which subject; but the concrete that makes up the 1. sheathshould be made as an original dry-mix such as is used in making concretedrainage tile and for innumerable other constructions, and also requiresramming but less on the average than the earth materials. However, theramming of both earth and concrete should proceed concurrently to theend that the strip 1 shall maintain a substantially straight lineposition, horizontally and vertically, between the earth and the greenconcrete. If the proposed plan of originally compacting a foot ofcomparatively loose earth material downto six inches is followed,

the width of the separator strip 'l should be a bit more than twelveinches. After the earth and concrete have been rammed so that theirupper surfaces are about in the same horizontal plane, two Workmen withflat nosed pliers, for example, lift the separator strip out oi itsplace and another rowof anchors such as the second anchor 6', Fig. 1, isplaced. This forms an excellent support for the separator strip 'l whichis again placed and the steps repeated for making the next course. Fig.1 shows that three courses, A, B and C are completed and course D isready to start. The tampfing necessary on the next upper course willpromptly close up the very thin gap left by lifting out the separatorstrip 1. It will be well to make the separator strips l' of aluminum,magnesium metal, or at least something that does not rust, to let itpull readily; and a thickness fairly close to gage (B & S) should besatisfactory.

Instead of double heads, other assymmetrical forms of anchors may befound sufficient, especially if the part in the earth is relativelylong. Window and door openings are built in around a placed casing as inother built up wall construction, and it will be understood that thebottom of such a casing will rest on an especially well smoothed andlevel rammed supporting surface. The outside form 3 may have a metallining 9 stamped to imitate brick work4 and the thin concrete sheath 5may contain coloring matter if desired, for appearance sake, as is wellknown in concrete work.

By following the steps as disclosed, a permanent attachment of aconcrete weather resistant sheath overcomes the only inherent weaknessof rammed earth Walls, which are summed up by South Dakota StateCollege, impossible to equal a wall of this kind-almost a perfectinsulator flreproof, soundproof, weatherproof-proof againsttermites-made of satisfactory soil and stuccoed properly it isabsolutely permanent. The above quote does not refer to or include theinvention; Stucco needs expanded metal as it will not adhere to rammedearth and expanded metal must be anchored. Rammed earth, when green;accepts driven nails consists in erecting inside and outside wall forms,concurrently ramming suitable earth mixtures and concrete aggregatesbetween the said forms in courses with a relatively thin separator stripin place to define the relative thickness of the rammed earth and theconcrete sheathing, pulling the said separator strip after ramming bothearth matter and concrete to about the same .horizontal plane, placinganchors of approved form to bridge the gap left by pulling the separatorstrip, replacing and supporting the said separator strip above the saidanchors and repeating the said steps in a superposed course until thewall has reached a desired height.

2. The method of applying an anchored concrete sheathing to a rammedearth wall which consists in erecting inside and outside wall forms,concurrently ramming suitable earth mixtures and concrete aggregatesbetween the said forms in courses with a relatively thin separator stripin place to define the relative thickness of the rammed earth and theconcrete sheathing, pulling the said separator strip after ramming bothearth matter and concrete to about the same horizontal plane, placingdouble head anchors of approved form to bridge the gap left by pullingthe separator strip, replacing and supporting the said separator stripabove the said anchors and repeating the said steps in a superposedcourse until the wall has reached a desired height.

3. The method of building a rammed earth wall with a concurrentlyapplied concrete sheathing, which consists in ramming both earth matterand concrete aggregates of suitable composition, concurrently, betweensupported wall forms, in horizontal courses, placing a separator stripwithin the space dened by said forms to keep the concrete aggregates andthe earth matter apart until a course has been rammed, withdrawing thesaid separator strip after a course is rammed, placing anchors ofsuitable form and material to 4bridge the gap where the said separatorstrip was withdrawn, replacing the said separator strip, and repeatingthe steps to form and anchor subsequent superposed courses of rammedearth and concurrently rammed concrete.

JAMES R. BARTON.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 705,156 Stevens July 22, 1902929,938 Haldeman Aug. 3, 1909 l1,475,570 Dye Nov. 27, 1923 1,655,676Daggett Jan. 10, 1928 1,777,926 Lillard Oct. 7, 1930 1,795,655 MacDonaldMar. 1f), 1931 v1,902,178 Nelson Mar. 21, 1933

1. THE METHOD OF APPLYING AN ANCHORED CONCRETE SHEATHING TO A RAMMEDEARTH WALL WHICH CONSISTS IN ERECTING INSIDE AND OUTSIDE WALL FORMS,CONCURRENTLY RAMMING SUITABLE EARTH MIXTURES AND CONCRETE AGGREGATESBETWEEN THE SAID FORMS IN COURSES WITH A RELATIVELY THIN SEPARATOR STRIPIN PLACE TO DEFINE THE RELATIVE THICKNESS OF THE RAMMED EARTH AND THECONCRETE SHEATHING, PULLING THE SAID SEPARATOR STRIP AFTER RAMMING BOTHEARTH MATTER AND CONCRETE TO ABOUT THE SAME HORIZONTAL PLANE, PLACINGANCHORS OF APPROVED FORM TO BRIDGE THE GAP LEFT BY PULLING THE SEPARATORSTRIP, REPLACING AND SUPPORTING THE SAID SEPARATOR STRIP ABOVE THE SAIDANCHORS AND REPEATING